Essay Low stakes writing Test

Essay- Low stakes writing Test

The current essay touches upon the challenges that MA students encounter in writing skill in general and collocation. As a result, this essay conducts a low-stakes writing test on ‘collocations’ which is targeted to improve the writing skill for MA students in English Language. The essay will first explain what the test is going to involve and what does it attempt to measure. Next, the essay will evaluate the validity and effectiveness of the test. Finally, the scoring for the multiple-choice questions will be clarified in this paper.

Low-stakes tests are defined according to Roediger (2013), and it is defined as a test, which involves the common use of evaluation tools that do not have a huge impacts on a student's course grade, such as the use of ‘clickers’ in class, and mastery-learning quizzing systems in which the students are able to repeatedly take quizzes on certain subjects until they master the material. In short, they are tested and it aims to determine the mistakes that the students can make in learning and to overcome such mistakes further. Besides, such tests refer to a specific difficulty that has been faced the students. The reason behind giving the students low-stakes diagnostic test is attributed to the following points: indicating their performance in English, pinpointing their weaknesses points, and enhancing their strengths points, overcoming the difficulties they encounter in writing.

Also, it is worth mentioning that improving the students’ communicative proficiency is not merely confined on teachers, but also other stakeholders are involved such as parents by observing their children’s mistakes in writing. The test is divided into two sections, the first section is multiple choice question on ‘collocations’ which contains 16 points, in which the students are categorised into two groups. The first group is known as the answer of the first six questions, while the other group know the answer of the second six questions in which one of the students ask another student to fill the sentences with the appropriate option from the list of options provided. Taking into consideration that the test is available in Appendix ‘A’, the teacher gives the winner student an award by giving them a treat because the motivation will encourage the students to work hard in future. However, an essay that contains one hundred and fifty words is required to be written by the students in the second section by using the collocations existed in the first section. In order to not make this writing test formal, the students are allowed to work in pairs and each of them can show his/her essay to his/her classmate. As such, every student will give his/her opinion about the essay and will underline the words, which are considered inappropriate or incorrect. In this respect, Outhred and Chester (2010) stressed the importance of group working by indicating that this teaching method is considered more simulative like peer tutoring. It is worth mentioning that the main reason behind asking the students to write an essay is attributed to the benefits that students will acquire by detecting the mistakes those students in structure, dictation, layout, the use of collocation. In fact, the teachers aim at encouraging the students to work with each other and to think rationally about the best solution in order to assure that, the flow of information which, in turn, will mitigate the mistakes that the students made in writing. This way of testing students encourages recognition within the class by giving the opportunity for the students to measure their own learning by identifying their strengths and weaknesses (Pintrich, 2002).

According to Chappell (2011), writing has several benefits, such as fostering communication, developing thinking skills, making logical and persuasive argument, expressing someone’s personality, and preparing for school and employment. This test measures grammar aspect i.e. the correct use of tenses, the correct use of collocated words, the structure of sentences, punctuation marks, and the organisation of ideas. As a matter of fact, once the students are able to master these aspects in writing, they will improve their writing skills better than before.

The test attempts to measure the pitfalls, which hinder the students from achieving a better performance in writing skill, particularly in the use of collocated words. For this objective, the current test seeks to measure the mistakes that students made in writing in order to determine their mistakes and correct them by using both the techniques, namely: working in pairs which facilitates the flow of information, creates enthusiasm atmosphere in the classroom which, in turn, enable building an enthusiastic students. All of which play a considerable role in improving students’ writing by checking if the learners constitute good sentences that are devoid of grammatical, lexical, and spelling mistakes. To this end, the assessment criteria in this test will measure the efficiency of the students. In this regard, (Messick 1989; Kane 1992, 2006; et al.) indicated the difficulty in proving the validity of the test, which is embodied in measuring what we suppose to measure, thus, in order to support the use of a test for a specific purpose, suffice clues for defending this use are required.

Moreover, Future Language Use Domain can be identified in this test, as the test measures the student’s writing skills by using collocations, which they are likely in using these skills outside the classroom in the future for example, when writing formal emails, letters etc (Bachman and Palmer, 1996). Such study will estimate the validity as well as effectiveness of this low stakes writing test. In brief, any conceptualisation of validity theory must admit that, the validation should be implemented on the use of the test concerning a specific goal instead of a test itself, with regard to the effectiveness as well as test validity. The teacher relies on the following concept during the creation of questions, namely: validity construct which means the extent in which a test measures what claims or aims to measure (Kelley, 1927). In order to ensure the validity of the test, the teacher expected the alternative outcomes in case of applying a test. For instance, if the test does not achieve the desired results then it will be edited until such results are achieved. In order to clarify, the teacher will resort to add, delete, or explain some questions in order to overcome the problems, which might be faced by the students concerning the comprehension of the questions before its occurrence. On the first hand, content validity means the extent to which a measure embodies all facets of a specific construct (Messick, 1996). The teacher throughout conducting the test will assure the validity and the precision of the content of the questions i.e. the question will be revised more than once and the teacher will place the likelihood of not achieving the desired results. On the other hand, face validity means the extent to which a test covers the concept and it aims to measure. It refers to the transparency or relevancy of a test, as it appears to test the participants (Holden, 2010). The teacher also assures that, instructions were given before the test and it is doable regarding their ability. According to Swain (1984), for the test to be effective, he believes the teachers must give strategies for the students, which will be useful for them. In the writing test, the teacher allowed the students to share their essays with their pairs and make corrections to their performance. Offering pair feedback after the test promotes “positive wash back” (Taylor, 2005:2) as the students concentrate directly on the test goals. Xi (2010) believed that, fairness of the test mainly focuses on contrasting the practices and findings of the test across various groups. The teacher assured the fairness of a test in terms of tackling the difficulties that the students encounter in writing and overcoming such difficulties. In order to clarify, both the questions are provided in the test, which willhelp the students in understanding the structure of the collocated words, writing an essay that is considered a comprehensive tool for improving the students from all the aspects, and giving feedback on their weaknesses and strengths points from the students to each other and finally from the teacher to the students. In the same vein, Kuh, et al. (2010) pointed out that, providing effective assessments entail being frequent, early, and formative. In a nutshell, the evaluation should be provided on a regular basis. As such, this test will help the teacher to give a feedback on students’ communicative proficiency. Inter-reliability defines as a measure of reliability used to evaluate the extent to which different judges agree in their assessment decisions (Hughes, 2003). It is beneficial because human observers will not necessarily justify answers the same way; the judges may disagree as to how well specific responses or material demonstrate knowledge of the construct or skill being assessed (Golafshani, 2003). Most importantly, the inter-reliability of the test was assured after consulting a panel of the teachers and supervisors to mark the test again in the second time. According to Drost (2011), reliability is the degree to which the measurements are repeated, when a large number of people perform the measurement on various occasions, under various circumstances, presumably with alternative tools, which measure the construct or skill. The reliability of the test was implemented; test-retest was performed on the students in order to yield more information from them in order to measure the improvement of the students after repeating the test on them previously.

All these measurement tools touched upon the mistakes, which the students make in writing English in general and collocation in particular. The teacher prospected the optimal findings in case of applying the test and the results of the test seek to achieve. It is noteworthy that, after applying this test, the score of the students will be improved, because they will be able to absorb collocation better than before due to the structure of the questions and the nature of the test that play a considerable role in assuring the flow of information. However, if the students fail to achieve the given score, the problem will be heavily relied on them. In other words, several reasons lead to their distraction and their lack of interest about exerting efforts in writing and learning collocation because the test is designed in a way, which further guarantee the improvement of the students. This section of the essay will explain how the test will be scored. The probable findings after conducting this test are embodied in improving the students’ grammar, accuracy, and communicative proficiency. The writing test is going to measure the performance on the students by scoring their level before and after conducting the test to pinpoint their performance and to determine their mistakes. Student’s performance of essay writing will be scored by using an assessment criterion. The type of assessment criteria used for this is a test, which is an analytical rubric, and involves categories where the students will be marked by such as, effort, accuracy and understanding, organisation of ideas, achievement and thoroughness and grammar (Tuan, 2012). For the multiple-choice questions, the marks for each question will be out of 20, while the overall mark will be out of 50. In respect of the students score, it will be distributed as follows: 10 marks will be on their interaction with other students, and 40 marks will be on their responses in order to guarantee that students are interacting with other students and providing correct responses. The purpose of putting marks on the students’ interaction with other students is merely attributed to the necessity to enforce the students for interacting with their classmates i.e. in order to encourage cooperative action. Overall, as discussed earlier in this essay, the purpose of this test is embodied in tackling all the weaknesses points that that students confront in writing leading to strengthening the students’ communicative proficiency, improving the ability of the students to overcome all the difficulties that might hinder their acquisition of the second language, boosting their ability to master all the difficulties in learning English. As such, the students will avoid the mistakes in writing which, in turn, make them more independent and confident. Therefore, it is recommended to make low-stakes test, which touches upon specific aspects of English for the students from time to time due to its effectiveness and ability in improving student’s writing skill.

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Appendix A- Writing test

1-I will take a ------------shower. a-fast b- quick c- hurry d- quickly 2- Are you ………aware of the complications of your actions? Fully b- completely c- utterly d- widely 3- The prisoner was hanged for-----------murder. Committing b- making c- launching d-doing 4- She-------into tears. Cried b- started c- burst d-exploded 5- He was asked to -------- a presentation. Do b- make c- start d- give 6- Sarah whispered -------in John’s ears. Slowly b- gently c- softly d-tenderly 7- I -------remember that it started to dark when he left. Vaguely b- ambiguously c- difficultly d- hardly 8- I want a -----of paper. Pile b- group c- collection d- pad 9- Could you please -------negotiations? finish b- end c- stop d- break off. 10- I want -------of carrots. Group b- collection c- some d- a punch 11-It is important if you want to work in this company to------- a profit. Make b- start c- yield d- achieve 12- I hope that you won’t tell anybody about that, please ------a promise. Maintain b- preserve c- keep d- take 13- I am unlike you, I don’t ------interest to these issues. Have b- give c- provide d-pay 14- I feel sick, I think I ……. the flue. Had b- started c-caught d- took 15-He used to drink coffee regularly, but then he decided to--------- a habit. break b- change c- alter d- modify 16-This food is -------delicious. very b- more c-extremely d- absolutely 17-She was ------from hospital. discharged b- released c- taken d-out 18- The ------rain is a huge problem. big b- extreme c- intense d-heavy 19- Saudi has a ------temperature. extreme b-high c-hot d-heavy 20- They-----an experience. Has b-have c-make d-do